Nursing Burnout: Symptoms and Coping Strategies A conversation with Victoria Masilang, Registered Nurse

Clinician burnout is a significant problem affecting healthcare professionals worldwide. Burnout affects the mental and physical well-being of healthcare professionals and has negative consequences on patient care.

DirectShifts hosted an online interview as a part of its mental health and burnout in healthcare series . Our guest Victoria Masilang who is an RN with 8 years of med-surg nursing experience shared some insightful views on how burnout can affect clinical practice and some of the coping strategies to get away from burnout.

Here are some of the key highlights from the conversation:

1. The major physical symptoms of burnout to look out for could be fatigue, emotional exhaustion, irritability, insomnia, headaches, and many more.
2. One of the biggest things that she found effective is having a really good support system: a great group of coworkers that can help. This gives clinicians a resource to vent or talk through what is going on in times of stress and feeling overwhelmed.
3. Practicing self-care is really important. Clinicians must make sure that they're taking care of themselves physically, emotionally, and mentally. She suggests taking a yoga class or going for a run or just doing something that you enjoy.

We also asked Victoria what healthcare organizations and leaders do to better support their employees in terms of addressing burnout and mental health concerns. From her perspective, she thinks that one of the biggest things is acknowledging that burnout is a real issue. It also comes with recognizing that it is something that a lot of healthcare workers are experiencing. She then explains that for organizations to support their clinicians, they must take steps to address it, whether that's through providing resources for employees to seek out mental health support or just creating a culture where it's okay to talk about burnout and to ask for help when it is needed.

Victoria also says that making sure that employees feel supported and valued is really important, Whether that's through providing opportunities for professional development or just acknowledging the hard work that employees are doing, I think that can go a long way in terms of reducing burnout and improving mental health.

Watch the full conversation here: https://www.directshifts.com/interviews/mental-health-and-burnout-in-healthcare